In vivo analysis of glial cell phenotypes during a viral demyelinating disease in mice

Animals MHV-free adult C57BI/tN mice were obtained from the National Institutes of Health animal facility (Frederick, MD). At 28 d of age, mice were infected by a single intracerebral injection with 1,000 plaque forming units of MHV-A59 in PBS prepared as previously described (Kristensson et al., 1986) . Control mice, obtained from the same source, were housed separately from the infected ones. Most controls were not subjected to intracerebral injection; however, some were injected intracerebrally with PBS without virus to confirm that intracerebral injection did not itself cause spinal cord lesions. During the acute infectious phase less than half of the mice died from acute hepatitis. The surviving mice were tested neurologically at 1 WPI and those without neurological symptoms were excluded from further study. Mice were killed 1-9 wk after infection along with age-matched control animals.